Fire (A Harry Styles Fan Fiction)

Chapter 20

Harry was still frozen in his stance, his eyes were drilled onto mine, not daring to look away for one second. He was reading the fear on my face that I was desperately trying to hide, although quite clearly failing to.

“Harry, what happened?” I asked, a stern yet questioning tone to my words. His bottom lip quivered as he stepped back a little, his hands floating between us.

“That wasn’t me…I promise. I-I don’t know what…I-I don’t know…” He trembled. The look on his angelic face suggested that he was even more scared than me. He felt that he had hurt me, yes he did. But I knew for a fact that he didn’t mean it. It was like his baser instinct telling him to carry on; it was what he was used to. He was used to finishing the job.

I knew that Harry would have given anything to go back in time and changed what had just happened, so that he didn’t hurt me, but he couldn’t. It had happened. I cautiously stepped forward, taking one of Harry’s stray hands in my own, offering him a reassuring smile and placing one last kiss on his pink lips. His eyes never moved, his face was still frozen in the same state of horror as before, but what had just happened…it really wasn’t that bad. I genuinely didn’t know what troubled Harry so much.

“Harry, what’s wrong?” I asked. My face was just inches away from his, but he couldn’t look at me, he looked at the floor in between our bodies. “Harry, it’s okay. It really doesn’t matter.” I tried to sound reassuring, but Harry knew better.

*****HARRY’S POV*****

How could I have been so fucking stupid? I didn’t know what to say, what to do…I was frozen. I wanted to hold her, but I felt her fear, I saw it in her eyes…I saw it. It was all because of me, because I was an idiot. I’d seen the same fear in her as the day she told me about Caleb, she saw me as him, she saw me as her worst nightmare.

*****VIOLET’S POV*****

After a minute or two of Harry looking at the floor, he found it in him to regain my eye contact, breaking the silence barrier as he did so.

“I-I’m sorry, come on…we should be getting you home.” He said with his usual raspy and mysterious tone. His face had softened from the once pained glare into one of extreme concentration, although I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. He ushered me forward and gently wrapped an arm around my waist. He stood taller than me by at least 10”. He dwarfed me, but that was another part of him that made me feel so secure, he was like my own personal bodyguard. A bodyguard with benefits.

We walked along side each other as though the previous events had never occurred, we talked as friends but saw each other as lovers. He had never asked about what we really were, never asked me to be his girlfriend. But I was okay with that, the way we were was perfect to me. I had a feeling that Harry had never had a girlfriend before, although I could be wrong. He seemed like more of a casual guy, and of course with him being a couple of years older than me, he would have probably had a bit more experience with the ‘romantic’ side of things.

We approached my house after about ten minutes of lazily walking, laughing at each other and talking about things that had happened recently, like the gaping hole in my life that was Harry’s absence. It felt so right to have him standing near me again, to have his arm around me, to be claimed as his own. It felt natural, like it was meant to be.

I could see my house from where we stood. I released myself from Harry’s grasp and turned to him, preparing to say my goodbyes.

“Do I have to let you go?” He asked, a cheeky grin on his face and a wink to accompany it. I giggled, longing for the answer to be ‘no’, longing to stay wrapped in his warm and comforting embrace.

“I’m afraid so, but not for long I hope?” I asked. He raised his eyebrows at me and let out a throaty chuckle. He entwined our fingers, pulling me near him once more. His lips grazed across my cheek and up to my ear.

“See you tomorrow.” He whispered, before placing a delicate kiss on my ear lobe and pulling away, unwrapping our fingers and walking away into the nearing darkness.